Assamese actress nominated for Oscar’s Best Picture

Assam actress Urmila Mahanta’s Hindi film “Ballad of Rustom” has been shortlisted for the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards 2014 from among 3,000 entries across the world.

In the 117-minute film, Urmila plays a supporting role of a girl whom Rustom (lead actor), the protagonist, meets on a train during his life as a wanderer. Rustom, a young Indian boy who works as a telephone lineman, is a part of various encounters. However, he prefers solitude and dreams of escaping into the harmonious world of nature. He keeps wandering from place to place, spending time with another youth who works on suburban trains.

The film director Ajita Suchitra Veera had earlier won the best director award at the Osian’s Cinefan 2012, the largest film festival devoted to Asian and Arab cinema. Hailing from Sonapur near Guwahati, Urmila went to school at Sonapur and graduated from Dimoria College in Khetri of Kamrup. Her first acting in front of a camera was while still in Class XII.